


Simulations

by imapirahana98



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: It is now fully uploaded, Just realized I didn't upload the whole thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 02:17:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15378540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imapirahana98/pseuds/imapirahana98
Summary: They return to the Garrison after defeating the attacking Galra fleet. In the small break between meetings, Lance finds himself at the flight simulator. A rush of memories fill him as all his failures seem to come flooding back. But he's a lot stronger now. What would happen if he tried it just one more time?





	Simulations

Lance stares at the simulator, memories flooding him in the small moment of peace. They had a small break in the constant meetings, debriefings, and planning meetings since the moment they touched down on Earth. They had defeated the galra fleet attacking home and finally they had returned.

 

The simulator. So many memories compacted into the machine. Most of them bad. Being yelled at, disappointment and shame in himself, never surpassing those few higher numbers that would have qualified him to be a fighter pilot.

 

Except...he was more than a fighter pilot with Voltron.

 

He wondered what his numbers would look like now.

 

He peered around, the garrison officers were either not paying attention or were in the other room. He grinned, and walked forward. He hit the settings for the highest level- the one used for Kerberos training- and entered the chamber.

 

As he sat down, he heard two other people take seats. He spun around, Hunk and Pidge grinning at him.

 

“Captain ready for take off.” They say almost at the same time.

 

The phrase all Garrison pilots learned, indicating the start of a mission.

 

“Captain reporting, let’s show them what we got.” He said, excitement filling his chest. There was a hint of nervousness though. What if he still couldn’t get through the levels? What if his scores really hadn’t changed at all?

 

It was too late now though. The inside lights and program engaged. It was go time.

  
  


Outside the simulator was different story. Garrison officers stared in confusion as the simulator rose from it’s platform, the gyroscopic mechanisms engaging for a difficult flight. People gathered around, curious as to what was going on. Shiro, Adam, and Keith stood to the side watching in amusement as the familiar highest setting started.

 

And after a few minutes it was like watching an entirely different crew from the ones two years ago.

 

“Lance main power supply to the left wing is out, can you compensate with the right while we reroute?” Pidge says, sliding floating panels around with a practiced ease.

 

“Yep! Hunk how fast can you reroute the power? Can you use the backup generator as a power source?” Lance replies, steadying out the ship with a steady hand.

 

“Already on it buddy!” Hunk says, kneeling down in front of a control panel, stripping wires and connecting them in a different sequence than their original pattern.

 

Within a minute, the left wing thrusters are back online and their moving again smoothly.

 

To his right, Shiro hears Adams shocked voice, “Are these really the same pilots that hold the record for most pilot error crashes? Are we sure they didn’t get replaced by clone aliens or something?”

 

Shiro swallowed heavily. Clone aliens. Still a conversation he had yet to have with his sorta not really reunited fiance boyfriend...thing.

 

Oh man they had a lot to talk about.

 

The loud speaker that broadcasted to the entire Garrison crackled to life, and Lieutenant Bratson’s voice commanded, “All cadets to the simulator room. We have a special training we want you all to see.”

 

Within in minutes the simulator room was filled to capacity with rows upon rows of assembled cadets, officers, and governmental officials too curious to be left out.

 

Once everyone was there, Shiro saw as Bratson hit the series of button’s causing practically everything in the simulation to shut down. From the cameras recording in the cockpit they could see almost everything turn red, and yet the scanners monitoring pilot biometrics showed barely an increase in heart rate, a calm no one has ever flown with over the whole crew.

 

Pidge’s voice rings out loud and clear, “Lance we just lost all defensive, thruster, and respiratory power. The left wing is malfunctioning again and it looks like the right is soon to follow. I suggest we reroute the backup power from the the left wing to the respiratory power and use our continued momentum to navigate through the astrofield ahead of us and use the slingshot method to go around that planet and gain more momentum to continue forward.”

 

Lance nods, flicking switches to power down anything that isn’t completely necessary. “Good plan Pidge. Can you and Hunk take care of it?”

 

Hunk’s already undoing his seat belt, attaching a safety line to his waist and grabbing the tool box. “We’ve got this Lance. Let us know if we need to hold on. I’ll try to reboot the auxiliary power and get defenses on line again.”

 

“Good idea. Report back to me with updates.”

 

“Roger!”

  


Outside the simulator there is a small murmur building up.

 

“How are they even doing this? I haven’t even made it past three minutes in there!”

 

“Wasn’t he a cargo pilot or something?”

 

“Hey isn’t that Hunk Chunks? He doesn’t even look sick!”

 

“Commander Espinoza start recording flight stats.”

 

And then Bratson leaned over, and turned on _all_ the switches.

 

“Guys hang on back there!” Lance yells, waiting five seconds and then starts running through the hardest simulator course Shiro has ever seen.

 

Lance is dodging and barrel rolling out of the way of asteroids, using the rebooted weapons systems to blast away ones he can’t dodge. And then there’s suddenly an attacking fleet of aliens that had originally been programed in as joke.

 

“Hunk! Pidge! I need your help up here! Did you get the respiratory system back up?!”

 

Hunk’s hands blur as they move to unscrew, reroute and reboot, the respiratory system. “Give me 30 tics and I’ll have it done!”

 

Pidge is making her way to the front again, gripping onto the sides of the craft tightly.

 

“Pidge you take command, I’m going to hop on defense and see what I can do.” Lance says as Pidge sits back down.

 

Pidge activates the steering yokes, and Lance disengages his, pulling up the full array of the long range and short range weapons system.

 

The murmur outside begins to build to a fervor.

 

They watch as Pidge pilots with a skill unknown to any programmer before them. Hunk finishes his repairs in record time and is reading out stats from his seat, helping the other two maintain control. And Lance? Lance is hitting every ship that comes even remotely close to them. Exact shot after exact shot. Precision and accuracy combined in the skilled hands of a master.

 

There’s cheering around them, cadets watching excitedly as the impossible seems to be happening before their eyes.

 

“Hunk what trajectory do I need to slingshot around that planet?” Pidge asks calmly, casually dodging between an asteroid and a rogue alien ship. As soon as they pass it, it’s blown to pieces by a laser blast straight to the power generators.

 

“Go at a .6 over tangent theta (.6/ tan

“Go at a .6 over tangent theta (.6/ tanx) angle. At the halfway mark I’m going to reroute all weapon powers to the thrusters to go out in the direction towards Saturn. We can use it’s moons to do the same thing and jump our way to Kerberos without using more power than necessary.”

 

“Great idea Hunk! Programming in the trajectory. Lance do we have any more LGM’s on our tail?”

 

“I’ve got six more hiding, but I’ll get them before we have to reroute power.”  _ blast  _ “Make that five more hiding.”

 

There’s a collective giggle outside the simulator, and people start talking over each other in awe.

 

“I knew him! He was in my Physics class!”

 

“Oh yeah, I totally know Pidge. One of the best coders of our class. They once taught me how to reprogram a spaceship to make it play smash mouth on repeat!”

 

“I sorta forgot how hot Hunk was. Wow. I call dibs!”

 

“Everyone watch their teamwork. This is what real teamwork looks like!”

 

To the side of the videos, stats were rolling in. Scores higher than any Shiro had ever made. He couldn’t help the swell of pride in his chest as he watched the team he was apart of, the friends he helped to mentor, dominate the simulator in front of everyone.

 

Lance’s voice echoes through the speakers, riveting everyone to the screens once more. “Guys I’ve got more incoming! Hunk don’t redirect power!”

 

“AAAAAAA!! Ok ok hold up. Let me see what I can do.” Hunk responds, pulling up scanners of the area all around them. After a moment he speaks once more, “Hey you guys remember that time when Keith got us trapped on that planet with Lotor and the exploding gas?”

 

Next to him he hears an indignant “I didn’t get us trapped!” from Keith. Shiro laughs, covering it up with a hand when Keith shoots him a glare.

 

“Who could forget that!” Lance exclaims, frantically defending them.

 

“Well the planet were in the orbit of is Jupiter. And it’s a gas planet.”

 

“Hunk you genius!” Pidge exclaims, switching the trajectory for a sharper angle towards the planets surface. “Ok Lance stop firing! No thrusters or any backup power. I’m turning it all off and keeping the emergency power on.”

 

Lance disengages, sitting back and watching the aliens as they approach. The aliens increase their thruster power, angling down even more to catch up with them.

 

Pidge grits her teeth, watching the monitors with a hand on the yoke ready to jerk up and change directions.

 

Shiro though doesn’t understand how they could. They need an immense amount of power to change directions from the pull of Jupiter’s gravity. He doesn’t see how they could make it out of this alive. He bites his lip, waiting for the black out of screens.

 

The aliens blast through the atmosphere, and all of a sudden it’s like a match in dry forest. There’s an ignition of flammable gas, and then it expands rapidly. Pushing out faster and faster, incinerating the aliens and racing towards the ship.

 

There’s shockwaves pulsing out, racing faster than the ignited gas. And suddenly, the ship is turning around and Shiro is watching as they literally surf their way out of Jupiter's gravity field.

 

What.

 

_ WHAT. _

 

He never would have thought of that in a million years.

 

He didn’t even think that was possible?!

 

But the simulator is programmed to be as realistic as possible. Taking hundreds of variables, and innumerable amount of facts and statistics to form flight simulations that are never exactly the same.

 

The room outside of the simulator is in an uproar as the ship continues to ride the expanding waves towards Saturn, the atmosphere of Jupiter a fire ball behind them.

 

And then the lights come on, the program shutting down as the hardest level is completed. Of course, they could keep going. Finish the entire mission. But that would take days and it’s not something any of them actually want to do.

  
  
  


Lance leans back in his chair, grin splitting his face. Hunk and Pidge high five, whooping and pulling Lance in for a hug.

 

That was  _ exhilarating.  _ He knows there are harder levels, ones that have to be activated from the outside and by a commanding officer, but that was the best run they had ever done in a simulator. They should be at least towards the top of the leaderboard. Maybe even close to Adam and Shiro’s scores if they were lucky...

 

The three of them, can’t stop laughing as they walk towards the exit door. Lance hits the button to open it, and suddenly there’s a roar of noise coming at them.

 

Lance doesn’t even think as he pulls out his bayard, Hunk and Pidge doing the same. Aiming at anything that moves, only for them to realize that it’s not an attacking army, but the entirety of the Garrison who are cheering. He can see a few government officials mixed in, clapping and cheering along with everyone else.

 

Lance takes a step back, not sure what’s going on.

 

The loudspeaker overhead crackles to life as Lieutenant Bratson reads out their scores like she does after every simulator round.

 

“Flight number 85395. Captain McClain, Programmer Holt, and Mechanic Garret scores. McClain leadership 30. Holt leadership 27.8. Garret leadership 27.6. Mechanic performance 28.5. Programmer performance 30. Captain Performance 29. Weapon Accuracy 30. Simulator score 28.99. Congratulations pilots, we have a new simulator record.”

 

Lance’s jaw drops, disbelief as the numbers flash across the screens. The previous record was 27.12. They beat it by almost two whole points.

 

A voice pierces through the crowd, “THAT’S MY TEAM! WHEN I SAY VOL YOU SAY TRON!”

 

Lance bursts into laughter at Keith’s voice, filled with pride as he starts their team chant. 

 

“VOL!”

 

“TRON!”

 

“VOL!”

 

“TRON!”

 

“VOL!”

 

“VOL!”

 

“VOL!”

 

“TRON!”

 

“TRON!”

 

“TRON!”

 

Lance’s chest swells with so much pride it’s difficult to contain. Pride for his team, for Keith finally learning the chant, and for himself. He’s proud of himself.

 

And there’s no better feeling.

 

(Except for his moms hugs, but he gets that later too)

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! I love kudos and comments so please drop one if you would like! :)
> 
> AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIRO IS CANON GAY!!
> 
> Okay...just had to get that out of my system.


End file.
